How to keep your emails out of spam filters

There’s nothing that makes a makes an Internet marketer more frustrated than finding their genuine emails, which people have opted in to receive, ending up in junk mail folders.

It’s a sad reality we have to live with in today’s online world, where spammers have wrecked it for the rest of us who try to play by the book.

Fortunately, there are some simple precautions you can take that will greatly increase your chances of getting your autoresponder messages to your recipient’s inbox. But it’s surprising how many marketers, even relatively experienced marketers, are still sending out emails with words such as ‘FREE!!’ and ‘click here’ and bright red fonts etc. These are virtually guaranteed to see your email end up in a junk mail folder.

Open up your own junk email folder

Actually, a great way to find out what NOT to do when writing your autoresponder messages is to take a look inside your own junk mail folder. You’ll find a common theme among most of them.

Here are some specific things to avoid:

- using bright red fonts

- using lots of exclamation points !!!!!!

- YELLING BY USING LOTS OF CAPS!!!

- using certain words such as ‘mortgage’, ‘viagra’, ‘hair loss cure’, ‘lose weight’, ‘make money’ etc (and don’t think you can get around this by trying to fool the spam filters by saying ‘m*ortgage’ or v*agra’. Modern spam filters are way too smart for that. How many ‘m0rtg4g3 ref1nanc3? spam messages are in your junk mail folder right now?
- saying ‘free’ or ‘FREE!!!’ or ‘100% FREE!’ …. or ‘click here’ …’act now!’ ‘limited time offer!’. These sound like advertising and spam filters will eat them up for sure. Even be careful with your unsuscribe link. Rather than saying ‘click here to unsubscribe’ …. better to say something link ‘If you would like to be removed from this list, visit the link below’.

- If you are sending HTML messages, using too many images can be a red flag for the spam filters. You’ll notice some spammers try to make their HTML email one big image, in an attempt to avoid words that triggers spam filters. But the filters are wise to this now.

Use a spam-checker program such as Filter Buster or Content Scrubber to test your messages

There are several good programs that allow you to test your your messages before you send them, to find words or phrases that will trigger spam filters. Two effective ones are Filter Buster and Content Scrubber. Customers of Firebirdpro get Content Scrubber free as part of their susbscription. Or you can pick up a copy at www.visual-mp3.com/review/22386.html. And Filter Buster is at www.filterbuster.com

If you have a larger budget, the best spam checker around is Dori Friend’s e-filtrate. It’s $97 a month but many top Internet marketers are using Dori’s service because they know it’s a great investment. You can see more about e-filtrate and some more of my thoughts on spam filters etc at www.plainwords.co.nz/blog/archive/2005_12_01_archive.html